Farmers bear nearly 1,000 fees and charges

Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance have jointly agreed to review and remove 14 fees and charges in agriculture, most of which are in the fields of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine, there are still nearly 1,000 other fees and charges that farmers are having to "carry" on their backs, affecting production and the process of preparing to join the TPP...

Quarantine fee chaos

Illustration photo

Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh, a farm owner raising more than 10,000 chickens in Chuong My district (Hanoi), said that for nearly a year now, animal husbandry has been very difficult, with losses due to the 30%-40% decrease in food prices compared to previous years, at times only 50% and many farm owners have had to give up, not having enough money to reinvest in animal husbandry. Although the price of animal feed has been less stressful in the past 2 years, farm owners still face many difficulties when having to pay fees and charges in animal husbandry and veterinary.

Currently, a chicken's life cycle is burdened with more than 30 fees and charges from various licenses. This is unnecessary and unreasonable, because the fees are collected in duplicate, wasting both time and money for the breeder," said Mr. Thanh. According to him, the repeated fees are mainly from quarantine fees, from the eggs collected once to the chicks hatching, if they are sold, they must have a quarantine license, and when they become parent chickens, they must undergo another quarantine before being allowed to circulate on the market. If farmers buy them to raise to lay eggs, before and after selling them, they will have to pay several more fees, and when they are slaughtered for food, they will still have to pay fees... Not to mention that when vehicles transporting poultry on the road, they also have to pay other unnamed fees.

According to Mr. Tran Duy Khanh, Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Poultry Association, the current livestock and veterinary fees are still weighing heavily on farm owners and businesses. Farmers have to bear many fees and quarantine fees, but the quality of quarantine has not improved, and diseases still occur. In many places, veterinary officers only quarantine by senses and even do it perfunctorily. Therefore, diseases are always lurking and threatening, causing damage to livestock farmers at any time. What is more worrying is that Vietnamese livestock farmers are facing a big challenge in TPP integration. If they do not reduce the current fees and charges to the maximum, they will be eliminated from the game, and foreign food products will flood the domestic market because domestic livestock cannot compete with imported goods.

Can't wait…

In a recent meeting on strong administrative reform in agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development proposed to continue removing unnecessary and unreasonable fees. In 2015, after many farm owners and businesses complained about the burden of fees and charges, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked the Ministry of Finance to review and abolish 14 fee categories and 21 fee categories in livestock farming. In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also directed the implementation of the national one-stop mechanism to reduce inconvenience for people and businesses. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development admitted that there are still over 100 large fees and charges and a number of small fees and charges, mainly concentrated in two areas: veterinary and plant protection, being applied. According to the Ministry of Finance's review, there are a total of nearly 1,000 fees and charges in agriculture.

Regarding administrative procedures, businesses still face many difficulties when they want to invest and start a business in agriculture. Some foreign businesses said that they have submitted their application for investment procedures in agriculture but have not been considered or responded to. Regarding this, Mr. Nguyen Song Thao, Deputy Director of the Department of Organization and Personnel (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) admitted that some units in the industry are still not determined in the task of developing legal documents, standards and regulations. Some documents have been issued but their effectiveness and efficiency in implementation are low because they are not close to reality. While the reduction of procedures and fees is still slow, recently, some experts have proposed to reapply some types of fees that have been abolished, such as collecting fees for slaughtering animals to control food safety and hygiene, or collecting irrigation fees to join hands to overcome drought and saltwater intrusion...

According to Mr. Tran Duy Khanh, although relevant ministries and branches have clearly shown their determination to eliminate unnecessary fees and charges in agriculture, to truly eliminate inappropriate and overlapping regulations, there needs to be close supervision. "In the immediate future, while waiting for the new regulations in the Law on Fees and Charges to take effect, there needs to be guidelines on stopping all inappropriate fees and charges to immediately reduce the burden on farmers and businesses investing in agriculture," Mr. Khanh suggested.

To create a transparent mechanism for farmers and businesses, Mr. Pham Van Hung, Director of the Finance Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has set a target in 2016 to strongly reform administrative procedures and from January 1, 2017, when the Law on Fees and Charges takes effect, it will truly untie the knots of agricultural production and business with fees and charges being transferred to a price mechanism. Accordingly, there will be fair competition between State agencies and external units in the process of performing tasks and people and businesses will benefit. However, along with implementing the price mechanism, what is necessary to truly untie the knots for farmers and businesses is that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance must review to amend or abolish the issued circulars related to fees and charges that are no longer appropriate.

According to Saigongiaiphong